By now you’ve probably heard about Clean My Org, a fabulous tool for ArcGIS administrators, that was released in March. The tool is primarily for ArcGIS administrators, who can easily realize many of the benefits of using it. For the GIS administrators in education, Clean My Org is likely the “WOW technology” that you’ve been waiting for!
Anyone can use Clean My Org, however, it is getting lots of attention from ArcGIS administrators in the GIS Education Community, in particular colleges and universities. Not surprising, as these users are also the most vocal fans (and ardent users) of Admin Tools for ArcGIS!
Obviously, we suggest that the GIS administrators in any organization that supports a large number of users or content consider adopting both Admin Tools and Clean My Org. They are a powerful pair as well as an incredible time saver! Customer support superhero, Blake Bilbo, recently discussed how Admin Tools and Clean My Org are perfect for each other – and we couldn’t agree more!
So, why should GIS administrators in education be so excited?
If you look at the nature of the job of the GIS administrator for a college program it becomes pretty clear. They are concerned with managing large numbers of users. Often these users are required to be divided and subdivided into many groups. Also, these users require their own user account, access permissions and data.
Each individual student ArcGIS account will need to have access to a huge amount of data that comes from many sources including, ArcGIS Online, the Living Atlas, the school or organization, class data, and student data.
GIS administrators in the education community have many users to manage as well as an incredible amount of data. Of course, without proper management and maintenance, things could easily get out of hand. Your organization filling up with vast amounts of data, the number of user accounts will rapidly grow, and available licenses and credits could become consumed very quickly… Yikes!
Clean My Org is an application that can run as a service on ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Online. It has many purposes, including scanning your platform, identifying under-utilized items, users, and groups that take up space in your organization.
Put yourself in the seat of an administrator in charge of all the user accounts at a university. The semester has come to an end, students have graduated or moved on in their studies, and in the near future, a whole new crop of students will need to have the accounts setup ready for the start of another semester. For the administrator, this is exactly why Clean my Org is required! Prior to creating user accounts and assigning access to software and data (think Admin Tools for ArcGIS), the existing user accounts and data, etc… will have to be cleaned up.
Using Clean My Org, the ArcGIS Administrator at any campus can easily perform the following tasks:
- Identify users and content that are active and frequently accessed. For example, have all students in a class logged in to complete assignment 1?
- Scan for web maps that contain references to data that no longer exists.
- Identify and remove items that belong to a specific user or group.
- Perform regular system analysis and maintenance. For example, set up customized scans to search your ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise for issues related to items, users, and groups.
- Declutter, organize and improve the performance of the organization.
- Identify items with <X% Score Completeness.
GIS administrators in the education community have a unique situation and environment. Typically, users come and go every semester or every several months. However, some schools may require setting up student access by class or school semester, others may provide access for a year. Then there are situations where a student account will be active for the entire duration of their education. Regardless of the situation, the administrator needs to create accounts regularly and remove accounts as students move on or graduate.
Clean My Org will make administrators in higher education more efficient and confident that their organization is clear of clutter and running efficiently.
Clean My Org is available on the ArcGIS Marketplace or for more information click here.
Guest Writer Spotlight
This article was written by Glenn Letham, Founder, gletham Communications. Specializing in Technical Marketing & Communication strategies for GIS, mobile tech & location technology companies & startups. gletham Communications will work with you to define your marketing strategy, or assist in delivering your existing strategy.
